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Spring can be a fascinating time to study our natural world as it emerges from its winter state. Observing and documenting signs of spring, such as the first frog call, the return of migratory songbirds, and the budding of plants, are cornerstones of many phenology-related citizen science projects.

Citizen science immerses participants in the process of real-world science, giving learners firsthand experience in science practices. Thousands of citizen science projects exist across the globe, ranging in focus from astronomy to zoology, and everything in between.

Search for and discover citizen science projects from around the world.

SciStarter serves to connect people with citizen science projects, and invites participants across the world to get involved in a celebration of science during April’s Global Citizen Science Month.

An introduction to citizen science

SciStarter supports and facilitates citizen science education initiatives, including the Think Like a Citizen Scientist collaboration with the Girl Scouts and SciStarter Education, which is designed to help educators implement citizen science in school and university classrooms. Additionally, SciStarter leadership served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee “Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning.” The committee explored the intersection of citizen science and science education, and formulated a research agenda coupled with guidelines to inform the practice of citizen science in educational contexts. The findings have been published in Learning through Citizen Science: Enhancing Opportunities by Design (cover pictured below). The findings recommend citizen science as an effective way to support science learning and found that citizen science in education may also be an effective strategy to engage underrepresented populations in the process of science.

Learning through citizen science: Enhancing opportunities by design

Citizen Science Month is an opportunity for formal and informal science educators, families, individuals, and community groups to join in and contribute to real-world science. Citizen Science Month is coordinated by SciStarter and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University (ASU), with support from the National Library of Medicine, the Citizen Science Association, Science Friday, and the National Geographic Society.

Discover free resources to facilitate an introduction to citizen science in your classroom, library, museum, or community, including anonline tutorial that includes a brief quiz and certificate. The National Library of Medicine also shares projects to try that are designed to advance research on human and environmental health.

The Citizen Science Month calendar includes ideas for participation throughout April.

The City Nature Challenge is a global bioblitz where competition meets collaboration. Jointly created by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences, the Challenge began in 2016 as a friendly competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, to see which city could document the most urban nature observations. The event reached a national stage in 2017 and a global stage in 2018. Data and observations from the bioblitz are shared on the iNaturalist community platform, providing a snapshot of global biodiversity over time.

Learn how to get involved in this exciting event that documents and celebrates biodiversity across the globe and check out the open source educator toolkit for the event.

On April 22, 2020, Earth Day turns 50, and to celebrate, the Earth Day Network, The Wilson Center, and the U.S. Department of State’s Eco-Capitals Forum announced a special campaign to celebrate this milestone: Earth Challenge 2020, designed to engage global citizens in meaningful science that addresses targets of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, with a specific focus on environmental and human health.

We hope that you’ll join a growing global community in celebrating Citizen Science Month through locally engaged, globally connected collaborative citizen science. By participating, you’ll accelerate and foster scientific discovery and will help make a positive difference in our world.

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About Darlene Cavalier

Darlene Cavalier is the founder of SciStarter, coauthor of The Field Guide to Citizen Science, and a professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

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The NSF grant that NSTA and ASTC used to build Connected Science Learning has concluded. We’ve come a long way. It enabled us to find common ground in the K-12 and informal science educator communities. We published two issues and reached thousands of readers. 3,200 of you signed up to receive alerts from us when new content is hot-off-the-press. Now is the time we ask you to take the leap with us. If everyone reading this just this month gave $5, our fundraiser would be done. That’s right, the price of a cup of coffee is all we need. At CSL, we believe science matters. Please help us keep CSL online and growing.